ARTICLES ABOUT LONG HAUL BY DATE - PAGE 4

PARIS (Reuters) - Former Chelsea and AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti has shrugged off media speculation he is only a short-term appointment at Paris St Germain by committing himself to the French club for "as long as possible". The Italian replaced Antoine Kombouare at the Ligue 1 team, owned by the wealthy Qatari Sports Investment group, in December. PSG have slipped from first to second since Ancelotti, who won the Champions League with Milan in 2003 and 2007, took charge but they are just two points behind leaders Montpellier with five games to go. "I hope to stay as long as possible," he told Reuters in an interview at the club's Le Camp des Loges training facility.

By Patrick Johnston KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Masters runner-up Louis Oosthuizen showed no ill-effects of his Augusta playoff heartbreak or long haul trek to Southeast Asia to fire an opening round six-under-par 66 at the Malaysian Open on Thursday. The South African, who lost out on the green jacket to American Bubba Watson on Sunday, was in an early tie for third in the clubhouse at the European and Asian Tour co-sanctionned event, two behind early leader Charl Schwartzel (64)

The Sports Xchange Ravens sign Webb to six-year deal The Baltimore Ravens signed cornerback Lardarius Webb to a six-year deal, the team announced Thursday. In his fourth NFL season, Webb became a restricted free agent after the 2011 season in which he led the Ravens with five interceptions. "We have a good history of completing second contracts for targeted players we want to keep for the long haul," general manager/executive vice president Ozzie Newsome said in a statement.

What the four Notre Dame quarterback candidates faced in practice Friday, per Irish coach Brian Kelly: Defenses that dropped eight men in coverage, testing each signal-caller's ability to avoid forcing things and taking off to run when necessary. What the four quarterbacks didn't have at their disposal: Any sort of audible at all, or anything close to the entire offensive system to implement. "That's why this is going to be a long process," Kelly said afterwards. "We're not going to have this thing accomplished because we have not even gotten to the checks in our offense yet. There are no checks in yet. It's call it and play… Just to give you a perspective of how far we are from being able to say, 'The quarterback is ready' - we're not even there in terms of our system.

In the early morning of Dec. 18, Capt. Michael Barton and his Illinois soldiers crossed the desert of southern Iraq into Kuwait, cramped inside armored vehicles, as they had done many times during the war. On this day, cheers and screams erupted from the convoy. The war was over and they would not be going back. "We realized that we were living history as it happened," said Barton, 32, commander of the Illinois National Guard's 1644th Transportation Company. "When we got off the truck, we looked up and down the line of convoys and there were smiles ear to ear, high-fives and fist bumps everywhere.

While Kerry Wood is expected to re-sign with the Cubs before their annual fan convention begins Friday, the drawn-out process and recent noise from Wood's camp suggesting he was prepared to sign elsewhere made the organization appear cold and unsentimental. President Theo Epstein had ruled Ryne Sandberg out of the managerial process, and let assistant to the general manager Greg Maddux leave for a similar job in Texas. Would Epstein reject a third Cubs' icon?

In the early days of Echo and the Bunnymen, guitarist Will Sergeant used to sit on tour buses, sewing together bits of torn-up city billboards, old maps and other detritus he found on the streets. It was his first stab at visual art, and he posted the cards on walls and forgot about them. "I don't know whatever happened to them," he says, by phone from a tour stop in Boston. "I probably just threw them away. Just disposable things. " Twenty-nine years later, Sergeant is still the guitarist for the Bunnymen and still making art on the side.

Chicago Public Schools chief Terry Mazany will complete his 100th day in office this week, a milestone that has him reflecting on the school district's troubles and promoting a new vision to help fix what he considers the chaotic and fractious reign of his predecessor, Ron Huberman. "The system was in free fall," Mazany said of the district after Huberman's departure in November. "There was plunging morale. Vacancies in key leadership positions. A balkanized organization structure where each unit was doing their own thing.